Recently, a so-called digital camera apparatus which converts an input video signal into digital image data by using a photoelectric conversion device such as a CCD (Charge-Coupled Device) and stores the digital image data in a storage device has been put into practice and widely used as a means for creating digital images. Some of such digital camera apparatuses have a function of setting a simple layout rule for a plurality of images selected by the user. Outputting layout set by this function and image data to a printer or the like can perform index printing or multi-image printing of a plurality of images. As a typical method of setting such a layout rule, a method based on the DPOF (Digital Print Order Format) version 1.10 specifications is known. In a digital camera complying with DPOF, image data (photos) as print targets and a layout rule are recorded in a memory card in the camera in a format complying with HTML, together with the image data. When the layout rule and image data are input to a printer complying with DPOF, the printer prints the designated images in the designated layout (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-127323).
In general, a digital camera includes a display unit such as a liquid crystal display, and can play back recorded photos (images) by displaying them on the display unit. The above DPOF function includes a so-called slide show function of consecutively displaying a plurality of images on the display unit or the like at a set timing.
However, layout rules which can be set by a conventional digital camera such as a digital camera apparatus complying with DPOF are limited to simple rules, e.g., a rule which defines the number of images to be arranged on one sheet of paper. It is therefore impossible for such an apparatus to obtain a high-quality electronic photo album rich in expression, which can be realized by freely arranging images at arbitrary positions on a sheet of paper or providing visual ornaments around images. In addition, how a final arrangement is achieved by processing a layout rule depends on the installation specifications of a display device or printer apparatus which interprets the layout rule. For this reason, depending on the apparatus to be used, a layout expression is not reproduced as intended by the creator.
As a method of solving such drawbacks, there is available a method of transferring image data taken by a digital camera apparatus to a computer, creating an electronic photo album by using a program which operates on the computer, and printing it as needed. Such a program is called a photo album application, which generally provides a high-quality layout function rich in expression to allow a plurality of images to be freely arranged. In the method of solving the above problems by using such a photo album application, image data must be transferred first from a digital camera to a computer. In addition, the user must be skilled in the use of the photo album application on the computer. For this reason, this method cannot provide the convenience of creating an electronic photo album by using the digital camera alone. Furthermore, the operation from sensing images to creating and printing an electronic photo album is a cumbersome procedure, requiring many steps.
Display timings in a slide show function which can be set by a conventional digital camera such as a digital camera apparatus complying with DPOF are limited to simple timings such as the display time of one image. For this reason, the conventional camera cannot realize a high-performance slide show rich in expression, e.g., designating the display time of each image independently or providing a visual effect for switching display between images.
As a method of solving such a drawback, there is available a method of creating a slide show by transferring the image data taken by a digital camera apparatus to a computer and using a program which operates on the computer. Such a program is called a presentation application, which generally provides a flexible timing information setting function and a visual effect function rich in expression, thereby allowing the creation of a high-performance slide show. In this method of solving the above problem by using such a presentation application, image data must be transferred first to a computer apparatus. In addition, the user must be skilled in the use of the presentation application. This makes it impossible to obtain the convenience of creating a slide show by using the digital camera apparatus alone. Furthermore, the operation from sensing images to creating a slide show is a cumbersome procedure, requiring many steps.
In conventional digital camera apparatuses, there is provided no function of adding title information such as a title or caption to a photographed image, or even if it is provided, the function is limited such that characters cannot be enlarged/reduced. For this reason, a digital camera alone cannot provide a satisfactory function of helping information organization, e.g., displaying images while adding the information of photographing conditions or the names of photographing site of the images. This imposes serious restrictions on the operation of storing and managing a large amount of image data in a storage device incorporated in the digital camera apparatus.
As a method of solving such a drawback, there may be used a method of managing the image data taken by a digital camera apparatus by transferring them to a computer, adding title information to each image data by using a program which operates on the computer, and transferring the resultant data to the digital camera apparatus again. In such a method using a computer, image data needs to be transferred first to the computer apparatus, and the user must be skilled in the use of an image processing program such as a photo retouch application in the computer. This makes it impossible to obtain the convenience of creating a tiled image by using the digital camera apparatus alone. Furthermore, the operation from photographing images to adding title information and transferring the resultant data to the digital camera apparatus is a cumbersome procedure, requiring many steps.
Some digital camera apparatuses have a function of allowing a user to set a special effect at the time of image sensing operation. This function makes it possible to sense images while applying special effects such as color tone conversion and soft focus (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-176615).
A special effect which can be set by a conventional digital camera apparatus is designed to be applied to image data when it is stored in a storage device. For this reason, an image with a special effect cannot be displayed on the digital camera before recording the image. That is, the user cannot photograph an object after checking whether an intended special effect is applied to an image of the object. In addition, since photographed image itself is directly processed when a special effect is to be applied to it, even if the user wants to use the image data from which the special effect is canceled or to which another special effect is applied, image data without any special effect, which should be used as a material, cannot be obtained.
As a method of solving such a drawback, there is available a method of providing a special effect for the image data taken by a digital camera apparatus by transferring the image data to a computer apparatus and using a photo retouch application program which operates on the computer apparatus. The user can interactively apply various special effects to image data as a material by using the photo retouch application.
In the method of solving the above problem by using the photo retouch application, image data must be transferred first to the computer apparatus. It is therefore impossible to obtain the convenience of creating an image with a special effect by using the digital camera apparatus alone. Furthermore, the operation from image sensing to creating an image with a special effect is a cumbersome procedure, requiring many steps.
As described above, many restrictions are imposed on the conventional digital camera in outputting and processing images photographed by the camera alone. In order to allow the user to output and process images by using desired methods, therefore, it is indispensable to process the images by using the computer.